Giving Small

Enough cow for each letter of the alphabet !

Cadence, cow #26 is out of the barn. Hurrah!

Thanks to so many people who donate their bottles we have another cow. I know I won't remember everyone (I'll try who helped with this batch) - Kate and Murray, Beth, Murray Research, Dean's Office, ITS staff, Special Collections/Archives, Rita and Peter's Surveys. I've also sold a few items on Kijiji donated by Mia - thanks Mia.

Donating Locally

As many of you know I started donating locally last year after my adventure in trying to trade coupons to buy a cow - we came close to paying for one whole cow but it was not the way to go.

However, with Shopper's points that people have donated, coupons, icoke pins etc, I have been able to put together an ongoing "give local" project for the Drop-in Centre at Aids Saskatoon that helps people and families who have someone who is HIV positive. Many of these people are dealing with homelessness and poverty and donations that for basic health and hygiene as well as Ensure and Boost are helpful.

If you know anyone who would like to give their bottles to the cow, let me know. I'm happy to pick up and recycle them. :-)

Let's work together to help out more locally

I would love to have a small group of people who focused on helping out locally either by contributing some time and collecting small items that help:

coupons

icoke pins

Disney reward codes

lots of different reward codes are helpful for donations -- I'll happily send you the list

Or if you are able to donate money (it takes about $100+/month to cover the amount on the items below AFTER coupons and the taxes). If there was some extra donations, I'd love to add cases of ensure and buy some more of these items. Any financial donations that you make are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.

Each month, I try to buy about 25-100 of each of the following using coupons:

I also shop for items that they use like toilet paper, kleenex, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, dish soap, cleaners etc. as well as some food and drink items for the Soul Food lunches held once a month.

Before Xmas, I received items from Doris and Gaye to sell for the cow. I had also had a few books and posted those. Almost everything has sold and my next job is post a few things from Mia and a photo of the downhill skis in the garage. I spotted them the other day and remembered setting them aside in the summer to see when the snow was on the ground for the cow.

Thanks for donating stuff to sell - it all helps towards these cows. $32 was collected from Kijiji sales for Birdie, cow #24.

Well we have snow and great skiing weather so I'll get these up soon I hope.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for Shoppers' Tell a Friend. 20,000 bonus points are in my account which means $40 on redemption day for donations. Most of the Shoppers bonus points go to local charities but if you happen to have something you want to buy at Shoppers let me know. I'll use my redemption to buy it, and you can pay me and I'll pop it in the cow fund.

Speaking of cows - we're on cow number 26 named Cadence

Today thanks to Rita and Wilf -- a fun soccer grandmother who knows how to cheer - I picked up bottles for recycling. Today's recycling haul was $24.40 putting us over half way to Cadence.

Chapter 3: The Fourth C is Christmas

In August I started getting to know more about the 601 Outreach Center to see where I could best put what energy I might have on a given day, if any.

I took on one small project and after a lot of thought, I decided to tackle a BIG one and work at it in my "Giving-Small" way - a bit here and a bit there and see what could happen.

So the big project is to try to fill 70 Christmas hampers with food for a Christmas meal and then food stuffs for 4 weeks. We'll also try to add age appropriate gifts. The organization does receive some donations for the hampers but last year it was a major challenge to get 50 together. With the increase in the number of people who are HIV positive, there are more hampers to fill this year. This is definitely an area where some extra help was needed.

So am I nuts - trying to fill 70 Hampers? Perhaps. Well there's a still librarian in me even on leave. I like to collect, sort, store and make things available.

I thought I would try to do some of it and never thought I could fill them. I wanted to do 1 or 2 juices in each box, some pasta, some rice, soup, and then the fixing for Christmas dinner. In my dreams I thought of coffee and tea and chocolate and nuts and Mandarin oranges -- it is Christmas. Then there some items which I had no idea how I would get them with coupons -- the stuffing, gravy, potatoes, and of course turkey and vegetables.

So on September 22, the hamper starts off looking like this:

Check back Wednesday to see what happens when Giving-Small posts a list of items she's looking to trade for on the couponing discussion board.

The Three C's - Coupons, Cows and Charity

Some of the grocery items donated this summer.

The Three C's - Coupons, Cows and Charity

Chapter 1: You can't really milk coupons for cows

Many of you will remember my hopeful entry into the world of coupon trading for the cow. I soon discovered that I am not cut out to be a traded and it's much much slower to trade enough to eventually be able to convert Canadian Tire money, gift cards or points into "cow money". I still keep trading a wee bit and hope to finish it up by Christmas. That's my deadline for raising the money for one cow. I'm at $225 after 9 months so with a bit of work, the cow should be in the shopping bag so to speak.

Chapter 2: Coupons put milk and cereal on the table.

While coupons aren't so great for cows, they turn out to be a super route to give locally and help people here and the established charitable organizations that serve them. I have taken things bought with coupons for free or near free to Crisis Nursery, Aids Saskatoon Homeless Drop-In Center, Food Bank, YWCA Shelter and SCAT.

I spent some time to talking to all of these groups to find out what was the "best match" in terms of their needs and my ability. In the end the best fit was the 601 Outreach Center that helps the homeless. They don't get tons of donations so things are really appreciated and used there. The staff is outstanding and the people who use their services are very helpful. When I pull up with my van, they all offer to help unload it.

So I still want coupons - lots of coupons so I can continue to buy health and hygiene items - toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, deoderant, as well as household and food items like laundry soap, dish soap, juice, cereal, snack food and dry goods etc.

Where does the time go?

September was so beautiful and it's come and gone. And then October rolled around - belated Happy Turkey Day everyone.

Thanks so much to all of these folks who contributed bottles and more. We have raised $209 towards "Belle" - cow #24.

Robin, Frank and Cara - new collectors and donators for the cow :-)

Gigi and her roommates

Peter and Barb

Beth

Kate and Murray

Frank and Diane

Urve

Nancy - that cute dog bed was snapped up on kijiji

folks from Kijiji who bought books and Ikea chairs

Dean's Office bottle recycling

ITS bottle recycling

Access Services bottle recycling - special thanks to Iffat that coordinates this

Cheryl and Ron

All the great folks in Special Collections and Archives - special thanks to Kulwant who always lets me know when it's time to pick up

Bottles from Data Services

Neil

Fullcircle coupon helpers - Carole, Zoe, Cecelia

I know I'll forget to thank someone, so please forgive me -- my brain is a bit like swiss cheese memory wise - flavourable and delicious but full of holes. The joys of being ill. I've discovered that I'm just a whole lot more human (error prone) than everyone else I meet. Everyday I get to be around people who have super powers!